Chapter III: Led Zeppelin

Like all of life's journeys and experiences fact or fiction we often have to accept that we have good times, bad times some more bad than good but it's the challenges that mould and shape us to become the people that we come to be known as at the end of our days.

Catching up with the adventure they were riding for a couple of days on the road heading far west towards the Orsenalloys trading district the terrain was noticeably changing from the lush greens and browns over the hills and far away that the four men were used to for most of their lives, only Airthul was familiar with the flint, gravel, granite and slate scattered paths that were building as they went further west. The smells were getting less sweet and more industrious with a Smokey, sulphur yellow haze in the skies in the distance around the Blooz mountains. "Much Greetings Grindmutha!" A stocky three foot Dwarf in Black Leather, Silver mail and Cadmium Suede bounded into view a top of a wide oak tree stump. "Good Lord Pla-Ert! How lovely that you have come to meet us, so pleased you got my psychic message!" Airthul exclaimed with delight. "Pag-Jam and Bon-Jon have already been hard at work in the forge in the heart of the Blooz mountains making some of our finest creations of Dwarfish metal work" Pla-Ert beamed with pride.   

The happy little man walked a head of the band of adventurers shouting "Carry Along, Come On!" Harold was dazed and confused "Airthul it's very hard to make sense of what he says!"  "Don't worry Harold, he knows what he means!" Airthul laughed. Harold was even more puzzled and muttered to himself "Yeah but we don't!"  Ruthael could barely see Pla-Ert from on top of his horse and was really concerned that the dwarf might get trampled underfoot.  It was getting fairly dark as night was drawing in Ruthael, Collip, Limbo and Harold thought they had lost their tiny host.  Airthul who was sitting in front of Harold on Abacab the Donkey, turned and spoke over her shoulder "You forget us Dwarves have extremely good night vision as we spend so much of our lives in perpetual darkness throughout the depths of Blooz mountains!" Collip replied "That explains why you tend to squint a lot during the day!"  "Well spotted young Collip!" Airthul complimented the observant young hunter.   

In the evening once they arrived at the trading it was teaming with life lots of Elves, Knights, Barbarians and Dwarves doing business in dim lit conditions. Each stall was illuminated by firefly filled jars hung by six foot corner posts. These magical lamps gave just enough light for the buyers and sellers to trade and deal with their wares and monies.  Ruthael , Collip took Limbo over to one of the stalls that was selling large melee weapons, ideal for striking heavy blows and inflicting critical damage and possibly fatal injuries on many of the potential beasts and monsters that they may have to defeat whilst they are on the Island of Classishe.  Airthul was already at this stall alongside her great-grandson Pla-Ert. He went behind the stall and opened up a large wooden trunk and "Look See,  My Friends, Here Over!" Ruthael and Collip look down into the trunk and saw an awesome war hammer  a brutal head that had sharp spikes on one side and a tough smooth flat surface on the other side, the handle was a thick metal and gnarled wooden shaft all together this mighty tool must've weighed twenty pounds so to be able to wield it you'd need to be an impressive warrior. Fortunately the two brothers were not weaklings or of a slight build. The years of working the land and hunting in the wilds went to sculpt these young men into intimidating hunters. "How much do we owe you?" Collip asked Pla-Ert opening up his money pouch.  Pla-Ert went quiet looked around briefly then whispered "Tis a gift, good sir! You are going with my Grindmutha to end the realms darkness!" Ruthael was stunned "Thank you, Pla-Ert you are most kind but I thought Airthul had asked you to arrange for an enchanted chain to restrain the Black Queen Mematade to remove her powers!" Pla-Ert clicked his fingers "Biscuits! I knows I forgot something! One moment" The muddled Dwarf went back over to the trunks and boxes containing all the readymade items  and opened a small box with a four metre length of silver and gold string. To be honest most people if they saw this wouldn't of thought of it to be strong enough to restrain a new born lamb let alone an ancient powerful evil witch. Collip was clearly disappointed "Pla-Ert I don't wish to seem ungrateful but do you seriously think that this thin wire is going to be enough to defeat the evil Mematade?"  "I can assure you when young Limbo uses the Invisible Touch mind control spell on the Conqueror it'll be fine because all he'll need to do is convince him by telling him (We need to Tie Your Mother Down!)" Airthul told the doubtful Collip. 

All this planning and organising was going fine but it suddenly occurred to Harold that they had no crew to sail the Wild Wind across the Seven Seas of Rhye  to the danger filled Island of Classishe  where beyond the White Mountain lies Castle Aseed. Up in the dungeon of the  castles high watchtower,  Dusk was no doubt held captive, hopefully still alive and in reasonable health.  A bitter frost had set in and snow was starting to fall the adventurers had no place to stay for the night out of the sub zero temperatures so Pla-Ert suggested that they packed up their provisions and closed the Orsenalloys market for the night and head through a secret underground passage that was a direct link to Dwarves homes in the Blooz Mountains. Pla-Ert and Airthul warned Harold, Ruthael, Collip and Limbo that the passage is an ancient guarded secret known only to the Blooz Mountain Dwarves and that they were trusting these  Roxtopian men to not reveal it to anyone.  As they shifted a boulder to one side, the cave entrance was visible and was large enough for them to ride their mounts single file without any struggle or chance of getting stuck or bumping heads or scraping against any abrasive wall surfaces. After about an hour's ride they arrived in the wondrous Dwarf community of the Blooz Mountains. Harold and the others couldn't believe that such a well maintained industrious twilight blue hued land could exist and run so efficiently.  All the families homes and workshops had been painstakingly carved out of the mountains  blue and silver toned rocky interior.  Lots of unusual music was echoing eerily throughout and when they eventually homed in on the origin of the unique sounds it was clear that it was a musical group consisting of seven juvenile Dwarves  oboes, flutes, kazoos and tubular bells without any words and just soft thoughtful empathic hums . This was so soothing that they all fell asleep and was left with the horses in good comfort overnight.